Setting up a mantis tank...

[ReeferGreg]

Suggestions? It's a 20 gallon. Would I be ok running dual Aquaclear 150's for filtration? Any tips for substrate/rockwork/etc?

Any suitable tankmates? Can you guys tell me a little bit more about their personality? Do they pretty much hide all day?

Anything else I should know?

I just have to decide...
Mantis tank?
Or Dwarf puffer and South American puffer thank (fresh)?
hmmmm.....

 

[ksrinlv]

I'd vote for mantis tank, these little guys are great. With semi-decent lighting you can load the tank with live rock, shrooms and zos for a beautiful easy to care for tank. My mantis is getting less shy as he gets more comfortable.

FWIW, a friend of mine is downsizing her brackish puffer tank, just not that interesting and not many plants will live much less thrive in that water. Go mantis reef!

 

[ReeferGreg]

Hmmm...so it's not too shy? It doesn't just sit in its burrow all day? And quite honestly, I don't have good lighting, just 30w of flourescent tubes...so some of the corals and such would be out of the picture...

BTW, the tank with fish would be pure freshwater. It would be stocked with one true red eye, one brazilian, and about 4 dwarf puffers, all pure freshwater.

 

[ReeferGreg]

bump

anyone else have any comments? :rollface:

 

[ksrinlv]

Different mantis's have different behaviors, some being out more than others. From the sound of your post, you're not totally sold on the mantis idea, so you should probably go freshwater. Plus not having enough lighting to even maintain some macroalgae is going to make the mantis tank harder to maintain. Freshwater's a lot less hassle to keep. Are you sure the puffers aren't supposed to be brackish??

 

[ReeferGreg]

I'm positive. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_Display.cfm?siteid=21&pCatId=971

 

[ReeferGreg]

Anyways...is the Clown Mantis one of the more 'outgoing' ones? Which ones are the most outgoing?

Don't get me wrong, I would love to own a mantis, im just not quite sure yet if I would love to own something else more.

If I were to go marine for my 20 gallon, what would a good option be for decent lighting? I'm kinda on a budget...

Thanks

 

[ReneX]

Hmm. While I can't yet answer the mantis shrimp question, I -am- an ex puffer lover. The species you listed are true freshwater puffers, but if your south american puffer is Colomesus (sp?) and your dwarf puffers are Carinotetraodon, you -might- encounter some problems. The dwarfs get to just over an inch long, and depending on the Colomesus you have, those are 8 to 12 inchers when mature, and they can grow very quickly. Most other puffers that are true freshwater dwellers are also highly predatory though they may be shy. Colomesus are supposed to be incredibly docile but those are still one-inch tastey morsels, as they would be to any puffer. Just a thought. I'm not sure I'd trust an eight-inch anything with fish the size and consistency of jumbo marshmallows :-D

BTW, I've kept both the green-spotted puffer and the figure eight with plants and they've left those alone, if you can find any that will live in brackish water. Try Java fern. The figure eight also did not bother larger schooling fish in the least and was picked on, but it was also a very small fish at the time. It ate the eyes of slow moving fish though, a mistake I made only once. The tetraodon are supposed to get more aggressive as they go up in size. $.02

 

[ReeferGreg]

8-12"? I was under the impression of around 3.5", and I double checked and found this. It states 4" in aquaria...(Colomesus asellus).

 

[ReneX]

Asellus are pretty neat looking fish. All the ones I've seen at the LFS have been between 1 and 3" so I did some research on them. And AFM came out with a blurb on them (The freshwater Q&A column, I'll try and find it) stating lengths. I could well be wrong and there's a lot of variation in their listed size, though most sources say "smaller in the aquarium". Piscattus is the larger of the two species. If you decide to go freshwater with an asellus or two, lemme know, I'm curious as heck myself since I've wanted an asellus for a while

And now back to your regularly scheduled thread.

 

[PRC]

I've had an N. wennerae in a 10G for about eight months now and it is a very entertaining critter to say the least. It mostly comes out to explore in the morning. The tank is very low maintenance. I have to top it off with fresh water every day or so and I try to do a one or two gallon water change every two or three weeks. You could probably get away with regular fluorescent lights if you only wanted low light stuff like shrooms.

 

[MadTownMax]

Even with NO flourescents you would be able to keep low-light corals such as mushroom anemones easily.

If you would like tank mates, nothing is really "safe" to keep with a mantis (safe for them, not the mantis :lolOf course you could always drop in a couple damsels in there for movement, and if one became a snack at some point they wouldn't be very expensive to replace.

Snails and hermit crabs are other things that would be on the mantis' diet, something that you might want to know as most people use them to help keep their tank clean.

I'm (hopefully) getting a mantis for my refugium and will be treating it to any hermits that get too large in my main tank. I have read that small mantis shrimps will leave larger snails alone - I'm sure this varies case to case, but here's to hoping.

Good luck, HTH